As the world goes askew and seems reeling in a divergent whirlpool, Ghold is back after a six-year hiatus with the soundtrack for our unsettling times.
No, it is not a comforting soundtrack. It is eerie, unsettling, and sometimes scary apocalyptic. The Englishmen´s previous outing as a trio in 2019 gave some clues about the direction they were heading, both in the sonics and the previous album´s title: INPUT>CHAOS. And now Ghold, as a quartet with a new bassist, releases an album of walloping music, balancing Noise, Experimental, doomy Sludge, the darkest corners of Darkwave, thunderous drumming, bass at the hollow end, and dissonance bordering on Alban Berg´s atonal escapades. You won’t leave this music without marks on your soul. And with each listen, it only becomes more fascinating. And disturbing.
Having said this, I must stress that the album is utterly enjoyable in its explorative inventiveness right from the start, with the first emerging discordant piano tones. That is on the opening track, ”Cauterise”, and serves as an omen of what is to come for the next 42 minutes (Yes: 42!). The sonics fuse into cascading drums and bass with fast riffs by discordant and distorted guitars. It is a blunt force racing forward towards disharmonic vocals singing in a clean choral chorus. The guitars spread out a bit to embrace the fast rumbling bass, and versatile drumming, and some voices are shouting disturbed words. The speed is breathtaking, and at the same time, the band is able to form some kind of melodic theme in the turbulent sonics. Watch the kaleidoscopic video on our site: https://veilofsound.com/2025/10/13/Video_Premiere-GHOLD.html
The next track, ”Lowest”, continues in line with the first, but at a slower pace, opening with a hollow bass, drums, and cymbals before a slow-moving riff introduces order in the heavy sonics. The disharmonic vocals with a sense of choir return and a distorted, fuzzy guitar forms a memorable melodic theme contrasting the singing. The music hammers on, giving the listener a sense of cathartic sonic experience that is upheld throughout the album. The last part of the track melts into a mesmerizing chaos with pounding drums, dissonant sounds, and an inharmonious fuzzy guitar trying to rescind the hammering rhythm section.
The ten-minute-long ”Place To Bless A Shadow” opens with sounds resembling an air strike alarm and layers of sound effects surrounding it. A calm, deep voice begins to whisper as the track intensifies and a voluminous bass reverberates. Sound effects appear, hits on the floor-drums, and tom-toms as the sounds pan out with the sense of the doomiest and most discordant Darkwave sonics one can come up with. It is as haunting as it is fascinating when you, as a listener, glide through the layered sounds that slowly swirl like dark fog with reappearing shapes in the shadows. In the dimness, distant and relaxed disharmonic chanting is heard, soon to be joined by a harsher, more angry voice, and they melt into mutual wrath and rage as the music becomes heavier with distorted guitars, hammering rhythm, and low-end bass. It all builds up to a frenzied crescendo with screeching guitars.
”Fallen Debris” opens with hard beats on the drums and cymbals, and fast riffing guitars provide the racing pace. They chug with haste before giving way to high, clean chanting vocals, but soon fusing back to support the drive of the song. In the layers, one can hear a choir shouting. The music builds and becomes riveting and intriguing with its many layers and higher-pitched guitar solo. It is fast and relentless as it moves toward an intense end.
Sound effects seemingly trying to convey whimpering anxiety open ”Leaves” before a cascading distorted bass takes over the soundscape and the emerging whispering vocals. We are back again to the darkest corners of Darkwave music in this almost ten-minute-long track. The distorted bass bears the sense of a sledgehammer trying to thrust the slow-paced sound effects forward. Then it loses patience and picks up a pace that itself is surrounded by creepy and dim sounds. It disappears into the darkness, rumbling below as the drums emerge with rhythm and occasional hits on the drumset, using brushes. In the shadows, sonic shapes appear, some trying to form a musical theme before it is wiped out by the rumbles and drumming. Surrounded by the effects, it feels like being in a meditative state in a gothic fog until a dissonant crescendo slowly forms in a gloomy and intense surge.
You could, in fact, be lulled into a disturbed meditative sleep by the previous track, so it is fitting that the last track is called ”Rude, Awaken”. It opens with dissonant bass, hard drumming, and the use of cymbals and heavy sludge-induced guitars. The pace is slow as screeching, fuzzy guitars appear, and soft, dissonant vocals begin to sing. The dense, distorted guitars are swirling and crashing, serving as a counterpoint to the soft vocals. Suddenly, everything disappears, and only heavy drumming echoes through your ears, broken by a distorted guitar and desperate shouting vocals. The discordant music fuses and swells again. The pace is measured until it simmers down to bass echoes below the guitar lines to end an amazing album.
There is a song by Pink Floyd (from the album The Wall) called ”Comfortably Numb”. I think we can rephrase that to describe what it is at the core of this outstanding album: comfortably jarring.
